2023 List Management

[Ruck'n'Roll]

Membrey, Nank, Newman, were all given reasonable chances but never came on as good as they did when they left, were all behind others.

Hewett off a Back Injury wasnt getting offered a 3yr deal but would have been better for us if he was allowed to chase his own ball

Darcy is the reason we shouldn't draft Interstate ruckmen, too slow a burn and risk losing them for cheap to clubs that can play them more
Mumford was 2nd fiddle to a low paid Canadian and offered a mint from a club with endless cap
Mitchell was behind others and offered a mint, at the time everyone wanted Hannas
Alir was moved out as a need for others and was only seen as surplus cos we played him as a ruck out of position
Everyone knows we tried hard for Dawson
The best 2 trades we have done in the last 8yrs have been offloading Hannas and Jones to the Saints.

Not fair to say Nankervis was given chances and didn't take them. For whatever reason (too short, too slow) the Swans didn't see him as a first ruck, rather wanting to use him as a forward/second ruck. Even at AFL Canberra/NEAFL level whenever Naismith and himself were in the same side it was Naismith who received the majority of minutes as the first ruck. And as the forward/second ruck he was perenially stuck behind Tippett. From what I recall we did offer Nank another contract but when Richmond came with an offer that included playing the majority of time in the ruck it was a no brainer for him.I can't say I've watched him regularly since then, but the ruck stats do show that while he isn't an elite ruckman he is in the upper half of the AFL ruckmen in terms of hitouts won and hitouts by advantage (By contrast both Hickey and Ladhams are both very poor)

Good point from Ugg, and as for Membrey, he had 1 game - and did really well. So "reasonable chnces" seems a bit nonsensical too.
"2nd fiddle to a low paid Canadian" provided a ROFL moment because I assumed it was meant as humour, but maybe not when I reconsider the rest of the post.

[waswan]

Good point from Ugg, and as for Membrey, he had 1 game - and did really well. So "reasonable chnces" seems a bit nonsensical too.
"2nd fiddle to a low paid Canadian" provided a ROFL moment because I assumed it was meant as humour, but maybe not when I reconsider the rest of the post.

Pike in 2013 kicked nearly 30 goals and from memory led the league in Contested Marks

In 2012, an injured Mummy was subbed out and we went with Pike to finish off GF Day

Not saying Pike was better, but at the time Mummy wasnt worth the gap between the 2 in pay GWS were offering

[BRS328]

Roadrunner and Liz
You both made relevant points in your analysis, however when a team consistently features in the finals year after year their draft picks are generally in the late teens which are further compromised by priority pick etc. The examples used such as Logan McDonald and Lewis Jetta happened to coincide with missing the finals the year before. The fact is generally you are fine with a top 10 pick, although as we well know you can still get this wrong (Dylan Stephens), and there are plenty of other examples elsewhere.
Your suggestion Liz to try and trade our pick 11 makes a lot of sense and I am sure the club will be exploring this oppy

[Auntie.Gerald]

SYDNEY SWANS

Who is leaving: Lance Franklin (retired), Paddy McCartin (retired), Tom Hickey (retired)

Who is arriving: TBC

Draft picks (as of post-Round 22): 12, 22, 31, 41, 50

Promoted rookies: TBC

Retained rookies: TBC

AFL 2023 off-season news | Off-Season Central, list changes, delisted players, retirements, confirmed trades, draft picks, draft order, rookies, free agents

[BRS328]

Roadrunner and Liz,
You both raise some interesting points, but I think you need to take into account the degree our constant success over the past 20 years has had on the ability to draft players. Generally over this period our first pick has been in the high teens, and when you consider the cream of the draft is in the top ten, it gets progressively more difficult after that.
Unfortunately we blew it with Dylan Stephens, but Logan McDonald is a very talented player and is developing nicely.
I guess we can be very thankful for the academy, but again we still pay for these players via discounted draft picks.
Continued success has a price

[MattW]

Decent analysis from David King re our list here: https://spotify.link/PptsXNIt0Cb (for those with Spotify).

Says the most important player on our list is Sheldrick, as in 'can he be a contested ball beast'? Completely agree and a pretty savvy call for a mainstream media pundit. (I'm pretty sure King regularly chats with Longmire incidentally.)

Also reckons Grundy will happen. I think it's worth noting that Grundy is an above average ruck in terms of winning contested possessions.

I reckon 20 regular season games each from Grundy and Sheldrick next year will push us us towards the top 4.

[KSAS]

Thanks MattW, I don't use Spotify but recognise King's comments were taken from his regular Monday morning spot on Whately's SEN show, which I just happen to catch. He also mentioned it would be huge if we manage to land both Grundy & McKay.

I too was surprised when he mentioned Sheldrick & agree he must've had some internal contact to put up him for next year (or he reads this board!).

[Auntie.Gerald]

As long as we feel we have a top4 backline

I agree that Grundy plus Sheldrick statistically doing a job equal to an experienced traded inside mid would make a big difference to our 2024 campaign……..ie a break out year like Warner did by Sheldrick and also by Konstanty

I’m not sure if that is enough against the best teams in the comp though

It looks like Grundy plus significant growth from day a sheldrick and Konstanty still doesn’t answer our KPD role so desperately needed

Imagine if Rampe was taking the mark instead of coming in from the side of the pack and trying to spoil against Carlton.

Minimising and further scramble ball and our danger zone 25m out

That intercepting KPD is still missing to make sure we are much more difficult to play against.

[Auntie.Gerald]

Thanks MattW Re Spotify link

So Kingy said we need minimum a strong ruck and FB

He thought Grundy was a good fit for our midfield group

kingy definitely thought we very much need a FB

And as mentioned above he obviously is concerned about our contested footy ie we need a contested bull and ige said young Sheldrick from our list needs to make this happen

I’m not sure if that is the answer for 2024……..but it would super helpful

[i'm-uninformed2]

Where I do agree with the Grundy recruitment for the right price is at his best, and the caveat is whether he is still there, he was terrific at ground balls and contested possession. He was never elite as a tap ruckman. He could hold his own but then be a true first use player from there. If he still has that in him, fantastic. If not, he’s worthless.

Partly because I agree with King’s analysis is if we can add two players who clear space and are ‘ first hands’ contributors, it’s massive - and I have enormous faith in Sheldrick if he has a good run with his body. He burrows, uses his hips, has clean hands and just knows what to do in the tightest of spaces. Like Neale and Prestia, he can prove the big bodied midfielder ain’t always the thing you need.

Combine them with Mills, if Horse uses him properly, and some pinch hitting by Parker, and we’re away. It frees Chad to have a little more space where he can truly hurt sides, saves Gulden from having to stick his head in too many packs, and let’s more dynamic blokes like Paps, Campbell and co do maximum damage.

Anyway, thing all hinges on our assessment of what Grundy can return to and unfortunately I didn’t watch enough of the Dees at the start of the year to form a view.

As an aside, and I know this won’t be common view on here, I also thought Ladham’s first half of the year before he got injured was very good. He’s not an elite tap ruck either, but he’s very good in general play too. So there’s that, if he gets his head right (a big if, I know).

[caj23]

Roadrunner and Liz
You both made relevant points in your analysis, however when a team consistently features in the finals year after year their draft picks are generally in the late teens which are further compromised by priority pick etc. The examples used such as Logan McDonald and Lewis Jetta happened to coincide with missing the finals the year before. The fact is generally you are fine with a top 10 pick, although as we well know you can still get this wrong (Dylan Stephens), and there are plenty of other examples elsewhere.
Your suggestion Liz to try and trade our pick 11 makes a lot of sense and I am sure the club will be exploring this oppy

We should try and trade pick 11 because we don't trust our recruiters to do their job properly?

[Roadrunner]

Where I do agree with the Grundy recruitment for the right price is at his best, and the caveat is whether he is still there, he was terrific at ground balls and contested possession. He was never elite as a tap ruckman. He could hold his own but then be a true first use player from there. If he still has that in him, fantastic. If not, he’s worthless.

Partly because I agree with King’s analysis is if we can add two players who clear space and are ‘ first hands’ contributors, it’s massive - and I have enormous faith in Sheldrick if he has a good run with his body. He burrows, uses his hips, has clean hands and just knows what to do in the tightest of spaces. Like Neale and Prestia, he can prove the big bodied midfielder ain’t always the thing you need.

Combine them with Mills, if Horse uses him properly, and some pinch hitting by Parker, and we’re away. It frees Chad to have a little more space where he can truly hurt sides, saves Gulden from having to stick his head in too many packs, and let’s more dynamic blokes like Paps, Campbell and co do maximum damage.

Anyway, thing all hinges on our assessment of what Grundy can return to and unfortunately I didn’t watch enough of the Dees at the start of the year to form a view.

As an aside, and I know this won’t be common view on here, I also thought Ladham’s first half of the year before he got injured was very good. He’s not an elite tap ruck either, but he’s very good in general play too. So there’s that, if he gets his head right (a big if, I know).

Thanks uninformed. Sheldrick, Roberts and then Konstanty have the potential to fill the roles but at this stage it may be a bit early to call as they simply haven’t played enough. Hence a case can be made to trade in an established mid- I leave it to others who this could be.

Ladhams can fill our No. 2 ruck with Grundy as our main tall. McLean has improved a lot this year and can be our swing man- I’m not convinced about Amartey until he improves his fitness. He needs a huge pre- season if he’s serious. If Sammy can play for another year he could fill the role down back which would then give us time to find another KPD. But we do need a classy small forward to help out in the forward line so we become hard to cover. Who could we get?

[waswan]

My preference in order of priority

Combine 1st 2 picks and try to move a tall from Western Bulldogs

Add Grundy for our 3rd Pick

Add Academy kid

Add Mckay free agent

[Nico]

Isn't Mccartin our full back?

[caj23]

If we can get Grundy and McKay and fit them in the salary cap, it’s a no brainer, they both improve is immensely

McKay gets a bad wrap, but I think if he was in a well organised defence that wasn’t getting bombarded like he has at the Roos he will improve significantly. I think he’s only played in 7 wins in his career

If we can keep our first round pick, and get our academy boys it will be a big win

Sheldrick stepping up would be great but he still has a way to go. He’s also been injured for significant chunks of his first 2 seasons, and I may be wrong but I think he missed a chunk of his draft year as well.